Social Question

Do you regret taking student loans?

I hear many people saying that you should avoid student loans at all costs. However, these are often also the same people who say that their education is invaluable to them. Since not all people have another option than student loans, it makes me wonder: Which would you choose – having lived a life with no student loans to pay off but no college either, or a college degree and student loans?

11 Answers

Well I don’t regret it yet, but yes, I apparently will. Either way though, it seems that I exist merely to pay for things, so even if I hadn’t got any, I’d still be paying things off everywhere, so what the hell.

I worked my way through college, with a little help from my parents, but my son took out a loan to attend a questionable I. T. training school and got an incomplete, mediocre education when the school went out of business and he is still paying on it, six years later, because he is not qualified to get a job in the field.

I was fortunate to get an excellent education that spanned nearly 20 years and my student debt load was under $50,000. In Canada, Universities are heavily subsidized by the Federal government.
We socialist Canadians try and make education accessible, just like we do with health care!
Shame on us! We must be Commies!

I don’t regret my loans. I applied for financial aid and scholarships and took what ever I could get to. I had some pell grants and some student loans. If it wasn’t for the student loans, I wouldn’t have been able to go to college full time like I did. I’m working on paying off my loans now.

Fortunately though my dad paid my way through university.
But i’d say that, if you needed it to take the degree that you wanted and needed to do, then it wasn’t the wrong thing to do – after all, nobody else is mostly likely going to pay for your degree. You need it to make a living (if that’s what you’ve decided), and you must do what you have to do to get what you want (within reason). Taking out a loan could also be your only chance at living the life you’ve dreamed of living (because your degree will help you get there).

My boyfriend and I both have about 10k of loans each. He just got offered a job with a 10k signing bonus, so this has made me think that anything under 20k isn’t hard to take care of after you graduate. Loans have interest rates, so the more you end up having, the more you’re going to have to pay when your interest kicks in after you graduate. I have friends who took out over 100k, had a ball for 4 years in college, and now they can barely pay their interest fees because they majored in something that couldn’t pay their big-time bills.

If you’re considering taking out a loan, find a low interest rate, but also try VERY hard to find other ways of paying for the rest of your college fees. I had a part-time job and I worked in dining services to get free meals for every shift I worked. I had lots of friends who became RAs in the freshman dorms and they got paid as well as getting free room. So just be constantly keeping your eyes out for financial opportunities, because they’re always around. ^_^

I have more loans than I care to count up. I wish I had done a year or two at community college, worked enough to save up to pay for part of it up front, or shopped around for loans with better terms. My entire education was financed through loans, grants, and scholarships.

I am getting an advanced degree now that I would not be able to pursue without a bachelor’s degree, so I do not regret going to college. But I very much wish I had the foresight to do it more cheaply.

Considering I am still not done with school and I have about 30k in loans I am starting to wonder if it is all worth it. Then the optimist in me kicks the pessimist in me and I believe that in the end it will all be worth it.